


The Celestial Mercenary Group

by Reign_of_Rayne



Category: Space Mercenaries, Space prompts (Tumblr)
Genre: (you'll understand once you read), Based on a Tumblr Post, Gen, and one kitten, do not blame me if you like the metal more than the goo, involves aliens being confused by humans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-04
Updated: 2016-11-04
Packaged: 2018-08-28 22:49:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8465938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reign_of_Rayne/pseuds/Reign_of_Rayne
Summary: While a ragtag, space-based mercenary group is recovering after a botched supply run and a close brush with the authorities, they find that entertainment can come from the least expected sources.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Space Imagine](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/239404) by Quinn. 



> So I saw this on Tumblr and had to write it. All of these characters are ones I made up - actually, if I want to be technical, everything in here is made up except the basic plot. But I digress.

_[parsing data stream…_

_interpreting information…_

_initiating sequence…done]_

_Shift 33 / Month 9 / Cycle 1322_

 

They had left the Koplytic Port less than a shift ago. With the new repairs, their ship flew smoother than it ever had. Even the stabilizer in the back that had always been the most unstable piece of junk their blue-scaled mechanic Al’oc had ever seen was rumbling in smooth rhythm with the engine.

The expenses from those fixes had nearly wiped out their gains from the last job they’d pulled, leaving three of the four members of the Celestial Mercenary Group lounging around the common area of their starship in varying degrees of boredom with few new trinkets to entertain themselves with.

Al’oc was messing with a strange three-dimensional puzzle based on magnetic properties he had discovered in the port with two hands while typing on a tablet with another three. His list limb was dedicated to making signs in the air at their explosives expert—and resident human—Nina. She was signing back only occasionally—she had divided her attention between Al’oc and the door to the storage area.

“Nina,” Jil’re’Bia rumbled, its voice resonating through the floors. It had no mouth; it was a lumbering collection of sentient metal. No one on the crew had ever had the need to know more than that. Feeling the vibrations from its voice, Nina glanced in its direction, signing,

“What?”

“What has you so preoccupied?” As it spoke, Jil’re’Bia’s metal appendages morphed and twisted into the appropriate signs.

“Ha-Hlee went into there when we boarded,” Nina signed. “I have not seen them since.”

“Why are you worried? They are capable.”

“We all are,” Nina signed while drawing her brows together. The movement pulled at the scars spotting her brown skin, earned through all her practice with the explosives that had earned her the universally-recognized epithet Nuke. “But it’s strange for them to stay alone for so long. Were they injured in our escape from the port?”

 _Escape_ made their getaway sound a lot more peaceful than it had actually been. Nina had ended up destroying almost three quarters of the ships docked there, and without her protective gear she likely would have lost most of her skin in the explosions. She could have blown up a third of what she had and still achieved the desired distraction. Of course, no one was going to point that out. Without her actions, the authorities would have had them boxed in.

They had paid the guy who spruced up the Celestial before they had gone, though. Good work deserved good pay. Besides, the savvy Hael’thian had given Al’oc a few tips about the stabilizer.

Jil’re’Bia rumbled again. Al’oc could see its boredom in how it had metal appendages twirling around themselves on some parts of its body. “I will go talk to them. You should…not. He gets afraid when you make things explode.”

Nina raised an eyebrow at that. “Not like I have much else I can do besides wait,” she said, her voice uneven, scratchy, and amused. She then snapped her fingers and then glanced at Al’oc, signing, “Where did you put that explosive compound?”

“Lab Four,” Al’oc replied, dedicating two limbs and three eyes to that task. “Do not blow up the life support systems this time. I cannot have Ha-Hlee fainting again. They lose solid form and it is irritating to scoop them up.”

“It isn’t my fault their species can’t handle the cold.”

“You broke a window and sent them into the _vacuum_ _of space_.”

“They lived.”

“We had to thaw them.”

“But they lived. And I got to test the explosives on a starship. From _inside_.”

Al’oc swiveled so all of his many eyes focused on Nina. She smiled at him, silver tooth glinting in the blue light.

“You,” Al’oc signed, “are a dangerous individual.”

Nina’s smile grew fiercer. She did not bother to sign a response and instead got up to stretch. Al’oc could hear the joints in her spine popping and wondered at how such functions could be natural in a body so compact and breakable. But then he recalled the number of terrible injuries and losses Nina had suffered and recovered from and brushed that thought aside. Nina was not as breakable as her peers.

Nina left, her boots clanking on the grate walkways until Al’oc could barely feel her footsteps through the floor.

Right as he believed he was close to solving both the puzzle and the program that was supposed to function as a key to their usual job sites, Ha-Hlee burst into the room. They had a cage of some sort under one pulsing purple appendage, their undefined head swiveling. They shivered, and then made a series of clicks upon sensing Al’oc.

“She has gone to Lab Four,” Al’oc responded. “What is under your arm? I do not remember you carrying that.”

More clicks.

“Nina does not enjoy surprises,” Al’oc warned.

Ha-Hlee shuddered again. Their head nearly melded with their torso and then became defined again. They chittered. Al’oc nearly dropped his tablet, using one of his available to make sure it did not fall. “You found _what_?”

Jil’re’Bia entered, ducking its head to fit through the doorway. “Ha-Hlee claims it is from planet 678-X. From Nina’s…” it paused.

“Galaxy?” Al’oc offers. Jil’re’Bia inclined its head.

“Yes. That.”

Al’oc hummed. “If Nina reacts to the creature, then we will know for sure. But,” he added before Ha’Hlee could move, “she is working now. She would not want an interruption.”

“Ha’Hlee did say that this is important,” Jil’re’Bia said.

Al’oc glanced at the code still giving him problems. It wouldn’t hurt to take a short break; they were going through an empty sector of space, laying low after the fiasco earlier that shift. No one was going to bother them. And Nina had only attacked them for interrupting her once, way back in the beginning when they had not been entirely comfortable with each other. It would do less harm than good to check whether she reacted to the creature Al’oc could see moving around in the cage.

So Al’oc sighed and set his tablet aside. “Let’s go, then.”

He ignored Ha’Hlee’s excited wiggling. They moved through the Celestial’s hallways, arriving at Lab Four within a couple minutes. Al’oc punched in the code for the keypad on the door and waited while it slid open.

Nina did not so much as glance up when Al’oc opened the door to her workspace.  She was at a counter on the opposite wall, goggles on her face, her short hair spilling in waves over the elastic bands.  Al’oc glanced at Ha’Hlee, who clicked in response.  With a roll of his eyes, Al’oc took the container from Ha’Hlee and stepped farther into the room, leaving his companions in the safety of the doorway.

Without turning, Al’oc made a gesture to Jil’re’Bia.  It rumbled in response and then repeated the rumble louder so that the vibrations would reach Nina.  Nina paused and looked over her shoulder, raising a single eyebrow.  She could not sign with both of her hands occupied at her station, but her question was obvious.

“Ha’Hlee discovered an item at the port before we left,” Al’oc signed.  “They believed you would like it.”

Nina frowned.  She turned for a moment to extricate her hands from the compound she was prodding with metal tools and then impatiently signed, “Leave it on that table.  I’m busy.”

She put her back to them and Al’oc closed all of his eyes for a moment in irritation.  Nina’s single-minded focus and absolute refusal to pause to do something else when she was working was a boon in serious combat, but not when they wanted to talk.  He then signaled to Jil’re’Bia again, and it made a short, aggrieved noise.  

“I no longer feel that it is important to do this now,” it said softly.  “She is working.”

“It _is_ important,” Al’oc replied, not mentioning that, since his curiosity had been piqued, he was seeing this thing through.  “And Nina works more than I do.  She can play with her toys once we have verified that this creature is from her planet.  Besides, I’m curious as to its function in nature.  It does not seem very dangerous.”

Ha’Hlee tittered and Al’oc frowned at them.  “I’m aware I didn’t see Nina as a threat when we first met.  But this is obviously a different case. For one, this creature is a quadruped.  Nina is only a biped.”

Al’oc ignored the subsequent clicks from Ha’Hlee.

“Jil’re’Bia, when I open the cage, get Nina’s attention.”

Although Jil’re’Bia could not express its resignation in the same way as Al’oc, its outermost metal plates shifted in a way similar to how Nina slumped her shoulders when Al’oc refused her requests for materials that could damage the interior systems on the ship.

“Please?”

“Fine. I will do it.  But I will say you forced me if she asks.”

Ha’Hlee clicked their agreement.

“All right, I’ll take the blame.”  Al’oc took the cage from Ha’Hlee and turned it so that the opening was facing Nina.  “Here we go, little one,” he said, opening the door.

Jil’re’Bia hummed as the door opened.  Nina made an aggrieved sound and turned around, her lips already pulled into a frown before she even laid eyes on Al’oc.  But as she turned, the small creature tottered out of the cage.  It had to be young; Al’oc could see that its fur was still growing.  It was not long out of its nursing stages.

It wobbled with each step, casting its head about and sniffing at the sterile air with a bright pink nose and feeling the air with the delicate hairs extending from its face.  Al’oc watched in fascination as it took one step and then another, its stumpy tail swishing through the air with each leg put forward.

Ha’Hlee chittered.

“It is cute,” Jil’re’Bia agreed.

The creature was walking towards Nina, who had not said or done anything since turning around.  Al’oc looked at her, keeping a few of his eyes trained on the creature in case it was not designed to survive in this ship’s environment.  

(Though he, like Ha’Hlee, thought that if Nina could survive here, then a creature from her same environment could as well.)

And then Al’oc heard a high-pitched noise not unlike Ha’Hlee’s language.  He quickly scanned the room, attempting to locate the source, but could not see anything that would produce the sound.  But when Nina took a step, Al’oc realized the sound was coming from her. All of his eyes went to Nina’s face, which was making an expression he had never seen before.

Her eyes were wide and shining, as though there was liquid pooling in them.  Her lips were parted slightly, and blood had tinged her cheeks pink.

The high-pitched noise came again when the creature stumbled and regained its balance in the instant before it would have fallen.

Al’oc glanced at Jil’re’Bia and Ha’Hlee, but they were as transfixed as he was.  They had never seen Nina make a noise or face like this.  The behavior was unprecedented.

He continued to watch in shock as Nina abandoned her work to go to the creature.  This was the same kind of work that she had not left behind even in the middle of a dogfight by the planet Y-672.  At that time, she had merely modified one of the Celestial’s turrets to shoot her experimental rounds while Ha’Hlee piloted and Al’oc tried to return fire with half the available artillery alongside Jil’re’Bia, all so that she could continue her experiments.

And now?  Now, she was on her knees, reaching out trembling hands towards the creature.

Her hands never trembled.  

She was saying something, a word Al’oc had never heard in her human tongue before.

“ _Kitty_ ,” Nina whispered.  “ _Kitty, kitty, kitty._ ”

Al’oc doubted she was even aware of her three crewmates still watching in the doorway.  He also doubted that he would ever be able to forget this scene unfolding before him.

“ _Kitty_ ,” Nina said again.  It must have been the word for the creature: a “kitty.”

What an odd moniker.

And then Nina let the kitty bump its wet nose against her palms.  The kitty released a short noise that was far too loud for its small body.  Nina’s whole body drooped in response and she quickly scooped the creature into her arms, cradling it as gently as any bomb she’d made.

Ha’Hlee released a slow, disbelieving series of clicks.

“She’s...crooning,” Al’oc whispered.  Indeed, Nina was repeating low, rhythmic noises that Al’oc recognized from comforting behavior on his planet.  He blinked, but that did not change what he saw.  Jil’re’Bia wasn’t even moving, so riveted was it on the fantastic scene.

Nina brought her prosthetic hand up and began to gently scratch the kitty behind its ears.  The kitty made that noise again but then went silent.  Al’oc could not stop staring.

Rumbling.  He glanced at Jil’re’Bia, but it shook the protrusion currently functioning as its head. It wasn’t the source.

“Where is -” Al’oc muttered, glancing around the room.  Ha’Hlee could not produce sounds like that, which meant it had to be from the ship’s engines.  If it was the stabilizer again -

Ha’Hlee shrieked.  Al’oc winced and the kitty flinched, nearly darting out of Nina’s arms but the human reacted quickly and enfolded the creature within her grasp once more.  She did not look away from the creature to reprimand Ha’Hlee for distressing it, which Al’oc would have expected under normal circumstances. It was as though she was afraid the kitty would disappear if she took her eyes off it.

Al’oc turned to look at Ha’Hlee.  “What was that?”

Ha’Hlee clicked and jiggled.

Al’oc whirled.  “The sound is coming from the creature?  But it - it’s so small!”

Nina clutched the cat tighter, positioning her hand so that she could rub its head and rock back and forth at the same time.  The rumbling increased and Al’oc realized that Ha’Hlee was right.

“Is it some form of hypnotism?” Jil’re’Bia asked. The kitty’s ears flicked in response to its voice, but otherwise the creature did not react.

“I have no idea,” Al’oc said.  “Ha’Hlee, do you sense anything?”

Ha’Hlee shook their center, their version of a negative.

“But Nina,” Jil’re’Bia began, and then stopped.  Nina was mumbling something into the kitty’s fur, and Al’oc could see liquid dripping down her face.  For a reason he could not pin down, Al’oc felt as though they were now intruding on something they had no right to view.

Besides, he had some diagnostics left to run.  And he hadn’t finished that program. He would—he would check on Nina in fifteen minutes. Just to be sure that nothing bad had happened. But judging from Nina’s expression, she was upset in a good way.

“We should go,” he said.

The other two agreed.  As they left, Nina nuzzled her face farther into the creature’s fur and whispered,

“I’m gonna call you Sparky.”


End file.
